Beauty / COVID-19: Keep Your Washed Hands Moist With These Soaps & Hand Creams

COVID-19: Keep Your Washed Hands Moist With These Soaps & Hand Creams

Beauty Apr 06, 2020

by Meena Khan | Features Editor - Beauty

Cleanliness is next to godliness, and hand washing is the prayer of all disciples. As we all strengthen our hand washing game not just for ourselves — but for everyone while we get through these times of COVID-19, check out how to keep your washed hands moist with these soaps and hand creams.

HAND WASHING — A MORAL, HYGIENIC OBLIGATION

My mother raised me with a strict hand and critiqued my hand washing technique relentlessly. As a child I resented her strictness and as an adult … I became my mother. I’m that person who carries her own public bathroom survival kit, which includes wipes, hand soap and hand cream, in every handbag regardless of its size or the occasion. As an extension of my fastidiousness, I have memorized the cleanest public bathrooms in Montreal, so if I have to use a bathroom, I will not feel like I am descending into an overt Petri dish.

The mere thought of not washing my hands upon entering my house, prior to meals, and after having entered a washroom makes me cringe — and I admit, I judge people who fail to follow my habits. My judgment has driven me to publicly shame strangers, and I have silently lowered my esteem for people. Sure, I’m harsh, but it’s inexcusable to proceed through life without proper hand washing, thus exposing people to illness and infection. It’s as if you violate your moral obligation each time you opt to do a mere water rinse after going #2. There. I’m done.

SOAP — A HUMBLE YET MIGHTY TOOL

The first step to is to always have soap available. I know that there’s a lot of praise being heaped on hand sanitizers but hand washing reigns supreme because 1) you break down the protective membranes of viruses; 2) remove dirt that is embedded in the skin; and 3) scrape away gunk that is stuck under the nails.

I am suspicious of anti-this and anti-that, and use standard soap to help me get fresh, clean hands. I like liquid soap because I find that bars of soap can be excessively drying and leave a film on my skin.

I recommend Dove Foaming Hand Wash because it is infused with moisturizers; is free of alcohol, dye, and sulfates; and can be refilled.

**Keep Your Washed Hands Moist With These Soaps & Hand Creams:** **Dove Foaming Hand Wash**. Photo Credit: www.dove.com

The thick mousse feels like dessert, and the scent is gentle (my favourite is Sugar Cane and Vanilla), so from a sensorial viewpoint, hand washing is soft and refreshing. Also since the Dove soap can be refilled, I love buying the huge refill jug, and then I replenish my smaller bottle for several months at a time. Which actually works quite well now that we are all in self-isolation. I always have soap and I know I’m doing the environment good by consuming less plastic in my quest for clean hands.

I also keep a bottle of this in my in my office desk drawer because we all know how drying those public hand soaps are. It leaves my skin red and irritated. So this saves my skin all day long.

Now when it comes to carrying one around, obviously you can’t be carrying an actual soap bottle. So what is champion handwasher to do? Go out and buy Shea Hand Soap: The Petit Cleanser by L’Occitane.

This tube holds 50 ml of L’Occitane’s world famous liquid shea soap, and it smells like creamy freshness. It stands at 10.2 cm and occupies minimal space. I will never forget how relieved I felt when I entered an unknown bathroom (it was an emergency!) and saw the empty soap dispenser. Instead of clamping down on my bladder and repeating the mantra, “You can make it home, just don’t laugh or think about rainfall,” (we all have!), I just whipped out my public bathroom survival kit and proceeded with more confidence than a lion marching on the Serengeti. The soap foamed into a soft lather and my hands were extraordinarily clean.

HAND CREAM — THE HEALING SALVE OF OUR MEMBERS

Now that we have to wash our hands a lot more than before, the skin needs extra TLC as handwashing strips the natural oils from the dermis. Here are my four suggestions:

First, beside every soap dispenser in your house, place a hand cream dispenser, so that you associate with hand washing with hand moisturizing. The extra 1 minute you take to massage your hands (see more on that below) allows you to treat your hardworking members with the respect that they deserve, and leaves them looking plump and beautiful. I recommend Clarins Hand and Treatment Lotion with Shea Butter because it comes in a dispenser that you can easily pump, and it’s great for your skin and nails. One bottle contains 200 ml, so you can always buy an empty dispenser from the pharmacy and split its content into two, so that you can spread the love throughout your abode.

Second, for my handbag, I always pack a hand cream with sunscreen because the skin on the back of the hands reveals early signs of aging, including age spots. I am careful to apply sunscreen to my face, neck and chest, and I extend this habit to my hands. I love the Clé de peau beauté Hand Cream SPF 18 because the lotion imparts a light scent and it is rapidly absorbed by the skin, without leaving the telltale sign of ashy sunscreen.

Third, for work, I need a hand cream that does not leave a greasy residue; moisturizes deeply because office air is dry; and infuses them with brightness because hands are a communication tool. I suggest trying Vasanti Brighten Up! Love my Hand Cream, because its combination of rosehip and coconut oils, mango and shea butters, and aloe, deliver on moisture, an anti-aging treatment and a brightening effect. The brightening effect, courtesy of the aloe, inspires me to massage this cream into my members several times day, to ensure that while I work, my skin is working to repair its tone.

Fourth, at night, I need a cream that is rich and contains a relaxing scent to help me switch into REM mode. I have found a beautiful option in Burt`s Bees Lavender & Honey Hand Cream with Shea Butter. This thick, white cream demands a slow moving massage (see below) that disperses this mixture of shea butter, baobab oil and pumpkin seed oil across the planes of the hands and deep into the skin, leaving them soothed and ready for rest. The scent is barely detectable but I love to cup my face and breathe in the lavender and honey before I fall asleep.

MASSAGE – THE REWARD FOR FULFILLING THE MORAL OBLIGATION

Now that we all know how to properly wash our hands, are we moisturizing our hands correctly? I have seen far too many people moisturize their palms, and forget their fingers, cuticles and backs of the hands. The exercise is futile because the palms do not require as much TLC as the other parts.

Below is how I always moisturize my hands, and I only vary the speed with which I stroke in the cream depending on the time of day:

1. I apply 1 teaspoon of hand cream on the back of my left hand.

2. I rub the back of right hand against the left one use broad circles so that I distribute the cream all over the backs, the finger and cuticles.

3.I use place my right thumb and pointer finger at the base of a digit, and massage in the cream until I reach the cuticle.

4. At the cuticle, I use my thumb and do a circular massage around the nail bed to encourage blood flow to the region.

5. I repeats steps 3 and 4 for each digit.

6. I then do a circular massage on the palm of my left hand, again using the right thumb.

7. I repeat the above steps for my right hand, except that I use my left thumb and pointer finger.

A HANDFUL OF THOUGHTS

If you wash your hands, and conduct yourself with respect and dignity, then you are far ahead of people who flout their obligations and endanger others. Hand washing is literally in your hands, and that is powerful. Hand cream enhances the act of hand washing and allows you to ponder on the fact that not only are you clean — you are a caring person who carries within herself/himself a sense of moral obligation.

Meena Khan | Features Editor - Beauty

Author

Meena (@meenalaregina) always loved the idea of exploring the non-conventional idea of beauty. Having grown up as a pimply chubby teenager, she wanted to see the change in the world that best reflected your uniqueness as well. Her well-received collection of blogs where she tries on various beauty p...

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COVID-19: Keep Your Washed Hands Moist With These Soaps & Hand Creams

by Meena Khan | Features Editor - Beauty

Meena Khan | Features Editor - Beauty

COMMENTS

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